Supreme Court Dismisses PDP’s Appeal, Upholds Ahmed Aliyu’s Election As Sokoto Governor

The Supreme Court has upheld the election of Ahmed Aliyu as Sokoto State governor.

A five-member panel of the court led by Kudirat Kekere-Ekun on Thursday dismissed the appeal filed against Mr Aliyu’s victory by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Saidu Umar.

It was gathered that Tijjani Abubakar, who delivered the lead judgement of the court, held that the appeal lacked merit.

Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Mr Aliyu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the 18 March governorship election.

Mr Aliyu polled 453,661 votes to defeat his closest rival Umar, who polled 404,632 votes.
But Mr Umar and the PDP launched a legal battle against Mr Aliyu at the Sokoto State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, alleging, among others, that the election was marred by electoral malpractices, non-compliance with the Electoral Act, among others.

Mr Umar called on the tribunal to declare him as the valid winner of the election, or declare the election inconclusive and order a re-run in about 138 polling units.

But the tribunal, in its judgement delivered on 30 September 2023, dismissed Mr Umar’s petition for lacking in merit.

Displeased with the decision, the PDP candidate filed an appeal to challenge it at the Court of Appeal in Abuja but lost.

The Court of Appeal in Abuja last November dismissed the appeal and affirmed the election of Mr Aliyu.

The appellants further appealed to the Supreme Court to challenge the outcome of the disputed poll.

But delivering its judgement on Thursday, the Supreme Court held that it had no reason to tamper with the concurrent decisions of both the election tribunal and the Court of Appeal.

It went on to dismiss the appeal and affirmed Governor Aliyu’s election.